PAVE is a free online tool that helps make existing PDFs accessible to users who are visually impaired or blind and utilize a screen reader.
Using PAVE
Note: You can only upload files up to 5MB in size.
- Go to the PAVE website
- Click on "Upload File"
- Choose the PDF file you wish to remediate in your file browser.
- PAVE will make some corrections automatically.
- There will be some issues that PAVE cannot correct automatically. PAVE will guide you through fixing the rest of the issues.
- PAVE will provide you with a downloadable copy of your fixed PDF.
Note: The PDF you uploaded will remain on the PAVE server for three weeks unless you delete it manually.
Making Remediations in PAVE
Any corrections that need to be made manually will be addressed in the "Tasks" tab. In the following example, the Title is missing in the PDF's properties. PAVE lists the error and provides a link to "Edit Properties".
Clicking on "Edit Properties" brings you to the "Properties" tab. Here you can add the required title of the document to clear that error.
- Although not necessary, you can also add elements like language, author, subject, and keywords.
The "Issue Details" tab lists each page of the PDF file and whether the page contains any issues that need to be fixed.
- Clicking on the Page will trigger a dropdown that lists the issues on the page.
- Clicking on the arrow will bring you to that specific page in the PDF document with the issue highlighted.
Clicking on an element on the page will bring you to the tagging properties of that element. Here you can edit the element type. For example, if the element is a figure, you can add an image caption and alternative text.
The Reading Order tab presents an extensive list of the order in which each element in the PDF will be read aloud with a screen reader. You should manually go through this list to ensure the reading order proceeds correctly from the top of the document to the bottom.
- If any issues are found, you can drag an element and move it in this list.
- Clicking on the pencil icon brings you to the "Tagging" properties shown above.
Once all remediations have been made, you can download the fixed PDF by clicking on the PDF file name, then "Download".
